The new Audi S3 quattro is like James Bond dressed in Marks and Spencer smart casual. It's a brutal performer, a true giant-killer, but you have to look very carefully indeed to discover this.
The clues that this car is anything other than a standard A3 are subtle. It's like a "spot the difference" competition. Dwell on it a while and you'll notice the understated S badges, the massive brake discs, the twin double-barrelled exhaust ports, the flat-bottomed sports steering wheel, the smarter wheels, the wider tyres and delicate changes to the aerodynamic sculpting at the front, side and tail end.
You're not going to notice them in your rear-view mirror when it comes dashing up behind you, and you won't have long to dwell on them once it's past you and away.
I've been driving a three-door version with a six-speed manual gearbox and had more fun in it than almost anything else I've driven in the past year. This is a four-wheel drive road car with a four-cylinder, two-litre turbocharged petrol engine pumping out 296bhp. In its latest form it has had its weight trimmed down to about 1.4 tonnes, so this model will dash from 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds, then on up to where the leash of the speed limiter yanks to full stretch at 155mph.
What is also quite amazing is that the official average fuel consumption of the S3 is now 40.4mpg. You may need the restraint of a saint to achieve that, but if it's actually achievable I'd have a hard time seeing the down-side of this car. Performance and prudence.
The figures gave me a hint at what was to come, but the experience on the road was what nailed home how special this car really is.
Right from the word go, this car just flies. Launching from standstill pushed me hard back into the leather seat. The all-wheel drive, aided by an electronic differential lock, made sure there was no scrabbling or squirming as the power was stuffed into the tarmac, the needles swept up through the dials and the landscape started to get blurred.
There's a solid, mechanical feel to the gearbox as the stick passes through every gate. It's so secure and positive that it virtually begs to be played with. Snicking up through the gears on the straights is fine, but skipping up and down through second, third and fourth on the twisting country lanes is magnificent fun.
The suspension is firm, as you'd want from a car with this kind of performance, so the turns are flat and the grip is excellent. The steering is absolutely spot-on for weight and feel and the driver's seat grips in all the right places to keep you at one with the car. Those big, ventilated disc brakes give you lots of feel when you're reining in and lining up for the corners.
You don't have to drive it like you're in a road rally, but it plays the part well if you should try. Then, when you're being the responsible citizen in the places controlled by lower speed-limits, you'll be pootling quietly and anonymously through the villages without getting more than a passing glance from the lieges.
The S3 isn't a very spacious car, but it's practical enough for most day-to-day chores if those don't involve large numbers of large people.
I'm a pretty average-sized bloke, a couple of inches under six feet. With the driver's seat set up for me, there's just about adequate room for someone the same size to sit in the back. Their knees would be tucked into the cut-outs in the back of the front seat and there'd be about an inch clearance above their head. Getting in and out is a bit of a stumble through the front door, but that maybe says more about me than the car.
The boot isn't particularly big, and although the back seat is split to fold forwards and give more room, the release buttons are located on the seat shoulders so it's a bit of a stretch, a twist or a struggle to put them down or up.
Back in the driving seat, there's plenty of equipment to play with, although on this test car, most of that is made up of extra-cost bolt-ons.
The standard price of this powerful little car, as delivered to the garage for you, is £30,640, but this one has a reversing camera that adds £275, a sound system that adds a further £255, and a Technology Package with mobile phone and the satnav that rises out of the dashboard that adds £1795.
If you want red paint it's £525, the red inserts in the heated leather seats add £895, the 18" alloys add £200 - the list goes on. In fact, with all the goods added to this car, the price is well over £36,000, which is a lot when you consider how small it is.
But look, setting price aside, it's always nice when I find a car that neatly drops into my top ten, especially when I'm not expecting it to, and that's exactly what's happened with the S3.
Sitting with the controls at your fingertips and all that power under your right foot, you feel as if you're equipped to play with the big boys of performance motoring. It has a sprint time that's within a whisker of some GTs and sports cars costing two or three times as much, and it would be an ill-advised boy racer in almost any other hot hatch who took you on.
It's not a car to go posing in, though. Only real aficionados will spot you as being in anything special and there's no joy in being worshipped by a nerd.
